Japanese minister: Let the elderly hurry up and die already

posted at 10:31 am on January 22, 2013 by Allahpundit

A quick bit of googling reveals that people think he was talking about letting elderly patients who don’t want to linger in the hospital choose assisted suicide. Could be, but the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is over 200 percent and, thanks to its appalling birthrate, more than 40 percent of the population will be elderly 50 years from now. If he’s thinking of this in terms of the national bottom line, he’ll need an awful lot of elderly “volunteers” to help cut costs.

“Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on when you want to die. I would wake up feeling increasingly bad knowing that [treatment] was all being paid for by the government,” [Taro Aso] said during a meeting of the national council on social security reforms. “The problem won’t be solved unless you let them hurry up and die.”…

Rising welfare costs, particularly for the elderly, were behind a decision last year to double consumption [sales] tax to 10% over the next three years, a move Aso’s Liberal Democratic party supported…

To compound the insult, he referred to elderly patients who are no longer able to feed themselves as “tube people”. The health and welfare ministry, he added, was “well aware that it costs several tens of millions of yen” a month to treat a single patient in the final stages of life.

Cost aside, caring for the elderly is a major challenge for Japan’s stretched social services. According to a report this week, the number of households receiving welfare, which include family members aged 65 or over, stood at more than 678,000, or about 40% of the total.

He said later that he was only stating his personal preference, not floating a new policy idea for Japan’s health-care system, but c’mon. You can’t have this conversation in the context of welfare expenditures and not have policy in mind. This isn’t even the first time he’s grumbled publicly about elderly Japanese in poor health sucking up the country’s revenue. Per the Guardian, five years ago — when he was prime minister — he said, “I see people aged 67 or 68 at class reunions who dodder around and are constantly going to the doctor. Why should I have to pay for people who just eat and drink and make no effort? I walk every day and do other things, but I’m paying more in taxes.” Right, but one of the purposes of a welfare regime is to protect people from their own poor choices. Now the bill has to be paid. What to do? The options seem … familiar somehow:

Economists and government officials say that Japan, in the coming years, will probably raise the retirement age, again increase taxes and trim spending on everything from education to defense, all to care for its elderly.

Young Japanese — those entering the workforce amid two decades of stagnation — will face the greatest burden: They will earn less in real terms than their parents, pay higher pension premiums, receive fewer social services and, eventually, retire with a less-generous pension package.

And that’s the best-case scenario, experts say, possible only if a notoriously fractious government succeeds in pushing through a series of unpopular measures.

Decades of good policy “can avoid a crisis,” said Masatoshi Katagiri, an economist at Chuo University, but living standards will erode. “Either way,” he said, “it will be gloomy.”

Those of you who think Obama doesn’t believe in American exceptionalism should read that again and then watch O’s inaugural speech yesterday. It’s more accurate to say that no one believes in American exceptionalism quite as much as he does.

Exit question: In 100 years, Japan’s going to be a Chinese colony populated by one guy and about 10 million robots, isn’t it?

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Until the robots outlive their usefulness. They will then either be parted out scrapped or end up in the great robot graveyard. The cycle will then replenish and continue on unabated for all time forward.

The 72-year-old, who doubles as deputy prime minister, said he would refuse end-of-life care. “I don’t need that kind of care,” he said in comments quoted by local media, adding that he had written a note instructing his family to deny him life-prolonging medical treatment.

To compound the insult, he referred to elderly patients who are no longer able to feed themselves as “tube people”. The health and welfare ministry, he added, was “well aware that it costs several tens of millions of yen” a month to treat a single patient in the final stages of life.

On the plus side, the law of averages states that Japan probably won’t have to put up with him as finance minister or deputy PM too much longer.

He probably has a hefty supplemental health insurance policy since the government version ain’t that great, and dramatically increases the more you make. Instead of waiting for elderly to die maybe he should reconsider the national health care system.

If liberals were to take this to it’s logical end they would promote the abortion of more blacks and hispanics. Might as well save money before they are born, because statistically they are more likely to need government assistance.

Two memes today on the culture of death that our world has opted for. No surprises in this but much sadness.

chemman on January 22, 2013 at 10:58 AM

I just ended a post on the abortion story with “Grandma, you’re next!” and this comes up!
Seriously, this is the future. If you think things like negative eugenics were Science Fiction, just wait a few years. How long do you think Junior is going to support our debts?

Why should I have to pay for people who just eat and drink and make no effort? I walk every day and do other things, but I’m paying more in taxes.” Right, but one of the purposes of a welfare regime is to protect people from their own poor choices. Now the bill has to be paid. What to do?

We had 800,000 of these parasites of all ages show up on the National Mall yesterday to hail their sugar daddy and listen to him promise them that they could continue to be moochers with absolutely no value to society other than breeding. At least Taro Aso is linking this mentality to the financial costs and not just constituency politics of the American parasite class.

Seriously, this is the future. If you think things like negative eugenics were Science Fiction, just wait a few years. How long do you think Junior is going to support our debts?

Boats48 on January 22, 2013 at 11:11 AM

You make the assumption that Junior is paying his way now. I’d venture to say that may not be the case. Not every parasite out there cheering a second Obama term was an old person concerned about Medicare. Plenty of young people who think that being productive and paying taxes is for losers. What with food stamps, Obamaphones, and all the other free stuff that is being offered up to lazy parasites.

The end result of decades of contraception and abortion. Less and less new people to support old people. Remember when Japanese society respected the elderly, and grandparents were supported by their children and grandchildren? Not any longer.

Last year, for the first time, sales of adult diapers in Japan exceeded those for babies.

Japan’s Total Fertility Rate: 1.39 children born/woman (2012 est.)

Definition: This entry gives a figure for the average number of children that would be born per woman if all women lived to the end of their childbearing years and bore children according to a given fertility rate at each age. The total fertility rate (TFR) is a more direct measure of the level of fertility than the crude birth rate, since it refers to births per woman. This indicator shows the potential for population change in the country. A rate of two children (actually 2.1) per woman is considered the replacement rate for a population, resulting in relative stability in terms of total numbers. Rates above two children indicate populations growing in size and whose median age is declining. Higher rates may also indicate difficulties for families, in some situations, to feed and educate their children and for women to enter the labor force. Rates below two children indicate populations decreasing in size and growing older. Global fertility rates are in general decline and this trend is most pronounced in industrialized countries, especially Western Europe, where populations are projected to decline dramatically over the next 50 years.

I know it is radical, and has not been tried in over 50 years… but it worked wonders to get the world to the 20th century…

It is a self fulfilling self destructive thing to subsidize old age.

First, you make having children much less valuable to people, they can live off other people’s children’s labors.
Second, people thus have fewer children or none at all.
Third, this requires you to take more money from people, making it more costly to raise children.
Fourth, People will have even fewer children.
Fifth, this requires the taxes to increase again.
…

We destroyed marriage because of Social Security.
We have aborted 50 million babies because of Social Security.
We have failed to have hundreds of millions of babies we otherwise would have because of Social Security.

“Doddering around” at 67 or 68?
Really?
The last person that age to ‘dodder’ into my office this morning did so after taking his three mile morning walk, and before his not-quite-daily trip to the gym.
My Dad gave up polo at 70. Because his HORSE was too old. Still exercises daily at 75.
Oh, and BTW, Minister-of-Death: They both paid taxes into the system for more than 50 of those years.

You want entitlement programs, like Social Security, to be solvent again in the near future? There is an easy solution. Stop the stupid health push. Get rid of all “sin” taxes and regulations. The government should be subsidising cigarettes, booze and McDonald’s if they really want to fix things. If people want to allow smoking in their business they should be allowed. Smokers live 10 less years on average, that’s 10 years of Social Security they paid for which they will never collect. Their medical costs will be the same whether death occurs at 70 or 90 so that is a wash.

The government should be subsidizing cigarettes, booze and McDonald’s if they really want to fix things.

The solution here is the age old solution, freedom and liberty.

Rocks on January 22, 2013 at 12:39 PM

What do you think tobacco price supports, ethanol subsidies, and farm subsidies are?

If we hadn’t been subsidizing tobacco farmers (like Al Gore), the anti-smoking campaign would be over by now, because tobacco products would cost more per ounce than a comparable amount of Bollinger.

As for ethanol, corn ethanol stock isn’t just fuel feedstock, it’s also the basis of bourbon.

And let’s not even talk about what a Big Mac would cost.

Myself, I want price supports for marijuana growers. The progressives want it legalized, and I want them all toking up 24/7/365.

Since the typical gram of weed has about twice the tar of even the roughest shag tobacco, and tar is a major cause of the health problems related to smoking, the more our “enlightened elite” indulge in this and their other favorite chemical “enhancements” as ways of proving how sophisticated, mellow, and worldly they are, the sooner they’ll remove themselves from the gene pool.

The end result of decades of contraception and abortion. Less and less new people to support old people.

Ward Cleaver on January 22, 2013 at 11:33 AM

Not quite. If anything’s to blame, it’s the Japanese corporate culture that makes your work into the entirety of your adult life. Nobody has the time to raise a child, and with no incentive to do so because of self-imposed long work hours, children are seen as a drain on resources or simply too much trouble to go through. Many companies have initiatives to get their employees to procreate by offering dree day care and bonuses, but it hasn’t been as effective as they’d hoped.

Also, the abortion rate in Japan is roughly less than of the abortion rate in the states. It’s still quite frowned upon, even though the practice enjoys high approval ratings. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure they use far more condoms than we do. Personal responsibility?

Japan already has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, so I guess he wants to encourage the elderly and terminal to increase that?

what is really messed up is that there is a national park in Japan that I was reading about on the net that is somewhat infamous for the amount of people who go there just to commit suicide, or camp while deciding if they want to off themselves or not.